RESPECT OTHERS AND YOU WILL GARNER THE POWER OF BLESSINGS
Master Jun Hong Lu: To respect means showing respect to Bodhisattvas, the elderly, fellow Buddhist practitioners, and also respecting the compassion and wisdom within us.
Showing respect will help you maintain your power to make progress and the power of blessings. How does the power of blessings come about? When you respect others, you will be blessed. When you respect your manager and your manager will treat you well in return, wouldn’t you feel assured? This is because you know you will not be fired. Similarly, when you return home and you show your respect to your wife, you will not be afraid of being kicked out of your home. These days, it is very common for a wife to get rid of her husband in an instant. As Buddhist practitioners, we must first respect others and in return we will gain the power of blessings and the power to make unfailing progress.
Second, you must take the Dharma seriously which essentially means you must revere the Buddha’s teachings. This includes bowing before the monastics, the Triple Gems and the statues of Bodhisattva. By offering your utmost respect to the Dharma, Dharma books and Dharma learnings, you will garner the power of wisdom. One who reveres the Dharma will gain the power of wisdom, while one who respects others will gain blessings.
The last one being true cultivation which essentially means not putting up a fake front, that is, you practise the Dharma wholeheartedly. It is pointless to fake your practice where in some cases, people can’t be bothered to recite the Buddhist scriptures the moment they reach home. What’s the point of faking your practice? True cultivation will help you gain the power of compassion.
Take a look at the true cultivators who are pouring their heart and soul into cultivating their mind, they will gain the power of compassion. Look at how these people persevere in emulating the Bodhisattva, how it is possible that the heart of compassion will not ultimately arise from within them?
Would it be likely for those who are dedicated to performing recitation and spiritual cultivation not to have any compassion? When things crop up, they will go, “Forget it! Anyway, I must have been karmically indebted to him”, viewing it as their responsibility. For those who are even better in their cultivation, they will go, “Gosh, he is so pitiful. He is actually a very good person and I must help him”. This is what compassion looks like. So, stay true in your spiritual cultivation.
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s Buddhism In Plain Terms, Episode 62